As an example of the above-described inactive gas supply facility, a facility as described in JP 2010-16199A is known for which a purge process is performed in which an inactive gas (e.g., nitrogen or the like) is supplied to the interior of a container so as to prevent the contamination of the content (e.g., a semiconductor substrate or the like) accommodated in the interior of the container.
It is possible that such an inactive gas supply facility has the following configuration. That is, in the initial stage after the start of the purge process on a newly transported container, the second control device outputs, to the first control device, an operation instruction in which the supply flow rate of the inactive gas is set to an initial purging flow rate that is greater than a predetermined flow rate so as to replace any gas (e.g., water vapor, oxygen and the like) present within the container other than the inactive gas with the inactive gas as soon as possible, and the first control device controls the inactive gas supply portion based on that operation instruction.
Further, after the inactive gas within the container reaches a predetermined concentration as a result of the purge process having been continued for a predetermined period of time at the initial purging flow rate, the second control device outputs, to the first control device, an operation instruction in which the supply flow rate of the inactive gas is set to a storage purging flow rate that is smaller than the initial purging flow rate so as to maintain the concentration of the inactive gas within the container at a certain concentration, and the first control device controls the inactive gas supply portion based on that operation instruction.